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Birth of the Cool:
California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury
February 15-April 13, 2008
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Lorser Feitelson
Dichotomic Organization, 1959
oil on canvas
60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan
Marie Eccles Caine Foundation Gift
© Feitelson Arts Foundation
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One of the most ambitious exhibitions organized on this seminal
period, Birth of the Cool presents over 150 objects that examine the
painting, architecture, furniture design, decorative and graphic arts,
film, and music that launched mid-century modernism in the United
States and established Los Angeles as a major American cultural
center. In sync with the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, the
exhibition installation features a jazz lounge, a media bar with film,
animation, and television programming, a period art gallery;
selections of art, architectural, and documentary photography, and
an interactive timeline. In the spirit of “cool,” inspired by Miles
Davis’s album, “Birth of the Cool,” the exhibition explores the
affinities among the dynamic community of architects, designers,
artists, filmmakers, and musicians working on the West Coast in the
postwar era.
Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury is organized by the Orange
County Museum of Art and is curated by Elizabeth Armstrong, deputy director for programs
and chief curator.
Major support for Birth of the Cool is provided by Brent R. Harris, The Segerstrom Foundation,
and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Significant support is provided by Bente and Gerald Buck, Twyla and Chuck Martin, Jayne and
Mark Murrel, Pam and Jim Muzzy, Barbara and Victor Klein, and Victoria and Gilbert E.
LeVasseur Jr. Additional support is provided by Toni and Steven Berlinger and Patricia and
Max Ellis.
Corporate Sponsorship is provided by  and  .
The Addison presentation is generously supported by the Sidney R. Knafel Exhibition Fund.
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